804 Covid cases & 12 deaths; positivity comes down to 1.5%

New Delhi: Delhi on Sunday reported 804 fresh COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths due to the viral disease, while the positivity rate declined further to 1.50 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

With this, the national capital's coronavirus case count increased to 18,51,320 and the death toll climbed to 26,072, the latest bulletin showed.

A total of 53,719 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the city the previous day, it said. Delhi on Saturday reported 920 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 1.68 per cent and 13 deaths. It recorded 977 cases with a positivity rate of 1.73 per cent and 12 deaths on Friday.

On Thursday, the city logged 1,104 cases with a positivity rate of 2.09 per cent and 12 deaths.

The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the latest wave of the pandemic. It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark.

The surge in Covid cases in Delhi during the third wave of the pandemic was largely due to the Omicron variant of the virus which is highly transmissible.

Several families in a large number of neighbourhoods had tested positive, but medical experts have said that since the infection had happened at the same time, the recovery too has been quicker for the community as a whole.

And there has been less chance of more spread of infection as people have been largely home isolated with a very little number of patients needing hospitalisation this time, they said.

There are 15,357 beds for Covid patients in Delhi hospitals and 528 (3.44 per cent) of them were occupied. Out of 589 Covid patients in hospitals, 172 are on oxygen support, including 45 on ventilator. The number of people under home isolation stood at 2,590 on Sunday, down from 2,805 on Saturday and the number of containment zones in the city stood at 16,997, down from 18,393 the previous day, it said. The number of active cases stands at 3,926.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority has directed health officials and district magistrates to ensure the Centre's revised COVID-19 guidelines for international arrivals are followed at the IGI Airport from Monday.